Happy Saturday, Sisters!
So we’ve come to the end of A Fresh Start. How are you feeling? What did you learn or relearn about the way God is making all things new? Was there a story or passage from scripture that stuck with you or resonated in a new way? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section if you’d like to share.
In the introduction to A Fresh Start we read these words:
This year, instead of resolving to finally get it right,
let’s resolve to walk with Him as He makes it right.
Instead of determining to get better,
let’s determine to get closer to Him through His Word.
Instead of making a list of all that we will do on our own,
let’s notice all that He is already doing and let’s join Him in it.
I don’t know about you, but it will take more than the month of January for that little list to sink into my stubborn heart. I need the reminder daily, hourly.
Thank God the end of A Fresh Start here is not the end of our everlasting fresh start in Christ, Amen?
what’s next?
We’re so excited to begin a brand new reading plan with you!
This Is The Gospel will begin on Monday, January 27. The plan is just as it sounds – a look at the definition, scope and implications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This 8-day devotional has truly been a labor of love for us and we are grateful for the opportunity to share it with you and for you to share it with others.
Whether you are a Christ follower or curious onlooker, a new Christian or a lifelong believer, we wrote this plan with you – each of you – in mind. Our prayer is that you will be blessed by the scripture readings and devotions in this study and encounter the grace and gospel of Jesus anew.
Would you pin, tweet or share the image below and invite a friend?
We’ll see you back here on Monday, January 27, for This Is The Gospel!
This Is The Gospel will be available here on our site only.
YouVersion users, hang in there a few more weeks!
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31 thoughts on "next up: this is the gospel"
I hope you ladies read this…biblia, the bible resource you guys use, does not work well with mobile devices (the text is super tiny and I cant zoom in…im using an s4)…I understand u all have ur reasons for not uploading the plan to youversion but can u use a site for ur reftagger that can be used by all devices including mobile ones because I use my phone for everything and this new plan uses a lot of bible verses…just a fyi plea
Hi there. Thank you for commenting. Are you clicking the reference to go to biblia.com or are you referring to the hover function where the yellow box pops up? The text on the biblia site is a bit larger than the yellow-box text. Are you able to turn your phone and read the text in landscape? I have an iPhone, but that makes the biblia.com text larger for me.
I am sorry the site-only plans have been an inconvenience for you. We’ll be heading back over to YouVersion soon. Thanks for hanging in there with us! If you have more questions or concerns, please email us at hello {at} shereadstruth {dot} com so we don’t miss it. :)
I feel guilty, I fell off the bandwagon with the Fresh Start series, my job has really been wearing on me lately. I know that's not an excuse, but it's hard to have a morning devotion when your morning starts at 5am. I want to start my day dwelling on God, more than just singing to a few songs on the local Christian radio station. Luckily, because I was promoted to Nurse Manager (PTL!!!) my hours are finally going to let me do devotions (yay 7am wake ups!!) the way I want, so I am extremely excited and enthused to begin this new series.
Grace, grace, grace, my friend.
Larissa – everything you said is exactly, word for word, where I am. I believe God has me in this season of my life to let go of my will and find out who God is so I can change my own will to his I believe this plan is part of that plan!
Can't wait!! Such a blessing…thanks so much! :)
Christina, I completely agree! I was sad too when I saw we were done with this plan!
I love the refresher every day that God has given me countless fresh starts. And I needed the reminder that it’s not if I look like a good Christian, but about trusting God and letting him lead.
This has been a great study. So glad to have shared it with you!
The words from Lamentations yesterday really hit home for me, even tho I've read them countless times before.
I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. (Lamentations 3:20-26 NLT)
I love that God opened my eyes to really see and feel what He says here. His mercy is UNENDING! I CAN forget the awful time! I CAN STOP GRIEVEING the loss I've been feeling.
My 'fresh start' recently included a fast, of sorts. I'm on day 5 of 21. Love how I'm already more dependent and focused on our Savior.
Looking forward to Monday and digging into the Gospel with you!
Thanks for encouraging us to keep in the paper copy of the Bible…so good to feel God's word in my hands more often instead of on a screen.
Be blessed, my Sisters!
Thank you She Reads Truth for the past three weeks. I have believed in God for as long as I can remember, but at 21 years old I still was not making the study of scripture a priority. When I clicked over to this site in late December, I liked what I saw and knew that I wanted to commit to the next plan. From January 6th right on up until yesterday when we concluded the plan, I woke up every day and started my morning with the daily reading and the devotional. It became a very important priority to me. I have watched God shape me through this special time that I share with Him each morning and I am so thankful for this community to share the journey with. This is an incredible resource for Christian women and I want to shed light on this to the ladies in my community so they can benefit from it too.
This whole experience was really something powerful for me. I am still pretty new to studying His Word. I have been trying to read by myself everyday for sometime, but then God brought me here to read, learn and share with all of you and i feel like things have changed for me. Reading your feelings and experices and sharing mine with you all has really deepened my faith. Thank you for sharing this experience with me. God bless.
Exodus 14 was easily my favorite. What stuck out to me the most was in verses 11 and 12 where the people cried out "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" I'm right in the middle of my first year out of college and I moved to a new city on my own — talk about feeling like I'm in a dry & barren desert. It struck me how much I'm like the Israelites that we get so frustrated with. I love that part of the devotional was pointing out that they hadn't seen the movie, the didn't know what was coming next. That is the very same in my own life; I don't know what comes next but I do know that I can put my hope in the Lord and that He can be trusted.
Thank you so much for sharing these devotionals with us! I've LOVED going through this reading plan, it has been so incredibly refreshing to me! :)
I couldn't have said it any better than Kathryn. Truly realizing through this study that the Lord can (and wants to!) handle me EXACTLY where I am at– with all my fears, failures, frustrations, past, future, dreams, loves, and every desire within me– and that I need not do ANYTHING but give all of myself to Him, to use in however which way He chooses. I feel as if I really encountered God's grace again during this time, both due to the devos and my real life, and learning of how able and willing God is to give me a fresh start always has been my complete strength and assurance during this time. I cannot WAIT to read on the gospel and really re-learn what all of it means for me in terms of God's grace and power to do what I cannot. Love you all, sisters. Being here with you every morning (or evening, when I have a late start to my morning) has been a complete blessing. I thank God for your genuine fellowship.
It’s like I have this kind of amnesia. You ask about my favorite scripture or devotional and I go blank. It happened over the last series too. I know that as I read every day my heart is stirred and touched, but then it all goes blank. It’s amazing how it all comes back reading the impact this series has had on all of you. It’s like experiencing the devotions all over again.
I am the same way. Don't feel alone. My mind goes blank, but I am touched every day. Also, it has helped em reading the comments today.
Journal, if you feel comfortable doing so.
It's nice to look back at how God spoke to you on a certain day, over a certain passage.
Good morning ladies! I wanted to share something I came across when perusing the SRT hashtag on Instagram this morning. Someone posted about a publication called Deeply Rooted Magazine (http://www.deeplyrootedmag.com) and the more I looked through their website, I wanted to share with my online faith community. They are currently in the process of fundraising to publish their first-ever issue this spring, & I know that there must be some of us who would be willing to support them in many ways. Praying that all you beautiful ladies have a restful, splendid weekend. I can't wait to start out new plan together on Monday!
Kat, thanks for sharing this. I just read a few of their articles. I'll have to bookmark that site!
I have enjoyed this study. Lamentations 3 is one of my favorite passages – I need Him every hour, and it’s so good to know that his mercies are new every morning. He is faithful! We don’t have to DO anything, on our own. Loved that the study said that God can handle our emotions, our messiness, and our fragility, and we can give him our whole selves, and in return, he gives mercy. He is good.
My life kind of came to a hault after my boyfriend and I broke up. It was sudden and unexpected. I asked God to help me find my strength in him and in the scriptures. I began the she reads truth series and committed to not making any excuses for missing. The entire series revolutionized my world. The verse that stuck out most was "The Lord will fight for you, you only have to be silent exodus 14:14
Ashley, I started SRT fresh out of a relationship too. God has used SRT to completely work in me towards that healing and true peace that I so need with all of it. Praying that even if you do miss a few days and frustrate yourself, God's grace would be sufficient for however you feel and that you'd cling to Him in this time. Blessings.
The women at the well is the one that had such a lasting impression on my heart I sat that day and wrote out more of what her story must have been (which was more of my own story then I realized) and the worship and presence that I felt that day was over whelmining. Thank you ladies for comments that remind me that I’m not the only one. What an amazing blessing the Fresh Start was and I can’t wait to see what God has for us next
Thank you for posting here. I have been reading Raechel's blog for a couple years now, and wondered where she was. It turns out she had something more important than pot holders to tell everyone about. This is where I start most mornings. My goal is to always been in the word More. This helps me. My real goal is to know Him, and He is the Word (John 1:1). Thank you, and keep up the good work.
I just started shereadstruth with a fresh start and I'm so very grateful for it. In this season nearing the end of my adoption, exodus 14:14 has become the verse I cling to knowing that I just need to be still while God fights for me. When we looked at Eve, I was so moved by the statement that I've been guilty of discontentment in the garden of provisions God has made for me. With our look at Moses and the Israelites, I realized that I too would rather stay with what I know, regardless of how bad, than branch out into the unknown that could very possibly be God's best for me. And finally yesterday, I desperately needed that passage from Lamentations and as I meditated on it all day, it helped bring me out of a very rough time. So thankful for these devotions and for God's continuous fresh starts and the everlasting one to come.
I loved the reminder that God is not to small to handle the unedited, mess that I am. All my worries, fears, selfish thoughts, frustration, etcetera… Not only is my God Big enough & has got this, he works through those weakness of mine to show others His love, His patience, His joy, and His peace. It’s only when I take my eyes off of Him and put them on myself that He shrinks in my mind & the problems of this world grow.
My God is able, My God is faithful!!!! ” Thank you Lord that I am not too much for you to handle and that you love me just the way I am. Even when I am not faithful you are! Even when I’m scared you give me peace, even when I’m weak you give me joy. Lord, I would not have made it this far without your faithfulness and love. Thank you Father-Amen.”
On another subject,. Yeah! I’m glad to hear that we will be going back to the youverse, I miss it the ease of using it.
I was struck yesterday when I read Lamentation 3:24. Hope is an act, a verb. When we realize that God’s mercies are new every morning when we open our eyes we are actively anticipating that the rest of His promises will come to fruition regardless of how desolate our circumstance. Nothing like hope.
A Fresh Start has been such a great reminder to keep things about Him and not myself and to look to Him for strength rather than trying to do it on my own. It's amazing this hope we have in Him, that even through in this world there will always be hardship, we can know that He WILL make all things new. The verse that stood out to me was Rev. 21:4: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be morning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
Singing "You make all things new. Yes, You make all things new. And I will follow You forward!" This study has reiterated how God starts us anew not only when we accept Christ, but each and every day.
I turned over here this morning, not realizing Fresh Start was over, and my heart sank! I have been so spiritually strengthened these last 3 weeks! In fact, I will probably have to go back and re-read most of the passages and devotions. I committed to memorizing 2 Corinthians 4:7-18, though. That may have grabbed me most. It is hard to pick just one. Thank you for a great way to start the year! See you Monday!
I am so thankful for A Fresh Start. The reminder that all things are being made new is exactly what this girl needed to hear coming into a new year filled with hopes, dreams, and possibilities. I think my favorite passage / devo was God Means What He Says (Hebrews 10:19-29). I like the resolution to begin 2014 fully comprehending my salvation and ensuring that I have truly given my life to Him. I've incorporated this into my prayers and already God is revealing Himself to me in deeper ways! I'm excited to see where He'll lead me this year. : )
This last study HAD to be God's will. I have been in a season of change in my life and this just made me stay focused on Christ and REALLY understand redemption. I cant WAIT for the next one!